Peter Travers Names Manchester by the Sea one of the Best Films of the 21st Century

Buried deep beneath the beautiful ugly of the BBC’s list (you really don’t want to spend too much time looking at it because you will start to hate everyone) is Peter Travers list of ten. Travers is, as we know from watching him every year, fairly closely aligned with the Academy. Sure, every so often there are one or maybe two films that don’t make Oscar’s list but Travers, along with Joe Morgenstern and Kenneth Turan are really your best critics in terms of sussing out what Academy voters might value. At any rate, it’s worth noting that Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea makes his list at number 10. That’s a lot of admiration for this film, which looks to be headed squarely for the Best Picture race out of Sundance. Here is the question, though. With Birth of a Nation mostly sidelined, can Manchester by the Sea become the first Sundance opener to win Best Picture? We’ve seen Cannes openers deliver winners (The Artist, No Country for Old Men), Toronto (The Hurt Locker) and Telluride (Spotlight, Birdman, 12 Years a Slave, Argo, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire) but so far, nothing from Sundance. Boyhood looked like it might be that movie. Birth of a Nation looked like it might be that movie.

Word is that Casey Affleck turns in a career best performance. David Fear writes, “Affleck is the revelation here; this is his movie from frame one. Whether quietly rebuffing people who want to get closer to him or trash-talking with his spiky ward, the actor gives what is easily his most layered, nuanced performance to date. He’s given impressive turns before — see Gone Baby Gone or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford — but the way Affleck gradually shows you the man’s bone-deep grief and emotional damage makes you believe that one of this generation’s finest actors has simply been waiting to be coaxed out.”